1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mosaic picture display apparatus and an external storage unit used therefor. More particularly, the present invention relates to a mosaic picture display apparatus allowing such picture processors as personal computers and video game machines to mosaically display still pictures thereon.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Japanese Patent Publication No. 2-7478 published on Feb. 19, 1990 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,824,106), for example, discloses a picture display apparatus capable of displaying both still and moving pictures.
Where a picture display apparatus of the above-mentioned type is used as a TV game machine, the apparatus should preferably provide an additional capability to display mosaic pictures so as to afford more versatility to the game. Under prior art constraints, displaying a mosaic picture requires a character memory to accommodate graphic data (dot data) on numerous characters constituting the mosaic picture in addition to the ordinary still picture characters. Such a scheme necessitates the use of an expensive memory arrangement of huge capacity not affordable for TV game machines that must be inexpensive in order to be competitive.